When a gas well produces natural gas, the gas typically carries liquid, namely water which may also contain particulate matter such as mud and sediment and other substances. This water must be removed from the gas stream before it enters a pipeline system because the water could impede the flow of gas. Water in the presence of gas forms hydrates or ice which can block the flow of gas, particularly in cold climates. Such blockage can create a safety problem in operating the well or pipeline system.
Traditionally well operators have installed separator packages which use a separator that is a minimum of about 12 inches (aprox. 0.3 m) in diameter and 5 feet (aprox. 1.5 m) tall. These prior art separators are very large, bulky and heavy, and are housed in buildings for access by maintenance personnel. The separators are also expensive, with units generally ranging in cost between ten and twenty thousand dollars (CAD), for instance. For shallow gas wells, this cost to separate water makes the wells uneconomic to operate, and so the wells are often abandoned.
What is desired therefore is a novel system and apparatus which overcomes the limitations and problems of prior art separators. Preferably it should provide a fairly simple and compact system with a minimum of moving parts for efficiently and automatically removing liquid from a gas stream. The system should be fully self contained and be light weight to avoid special supports for mounting on a gas pipeline or adjacent a wellhead, and should be relatively inexpensive for economical production of shallow gas wells and the like, particularly in cold climates.